Radio column in a giving mood

The holiday season is here again, and it's time to give some
gifts to deserving radio types. Here's a sneak peek at my shopping
list:

- A lifetime supply of Geritol goes to the folks at rock station
Sophie@103.7
, who shouldn't be
making fun of their elders.

The station aired a promo suggesting that listeners avoid tuning
in to "overpaid old guys" on other stations and listen to
Sophie@103.7
instead. Overpaid old guys?
Gosh, whomever could they possibly be referring to? Could it be
longtime morning hosts "Jeff & Jer" over at Star 94.1? Yeah,
J&J are getting a little long in the tooth. (Must they keep
reminiscing about the Taft Administration?) But this dynamic duo
remains hugely popular in the ratings after all these years, while
the on-air personalities at Sophie are struggling to get
attention.

Despite the gibes, J&J are laughing all the way to
geezerhood.

- Rock station KPRI gets a year's supply of pacifiers to stick
in the mouths of its disc jockeys. KPRI has long been the classiest
rock station in town, known for treating listeners -- and music --
with respect. But lately, its on-air hosts have been talking over
the music. Unlike other stations, KPRI's approach is subtle. But
still, the station has a sterling reputation for a reason, and it
shouldn't get in the way of the songs.

KPRI also gets a lump of coal for being a bit on the stingy
side. The station is holding a contest to see who can produce the
best TV commercial for KPRI. The grand prize? $1,000. Locally
produced commercials typically cost thousands of dollars. The
contest winner will have done everything -- writing, narrating,
production, graphics -- and deserves more than chump change. (By
the way, you can still vote for the winning "homegrown" commercial
at
KPRiFM.com
. There are four
finalists, with three from North County.)

- Free tuition to an English-as-a-second-language class is on
its way to soft-rock station KyXy, which doesn't seem quite
conversant in our native tongue. The KyXy Web site declares that
the station has switched to an all-Christmas music format and adds
this bit of inspired verbiage: "Nothing but Bing, Mariah, Nat and
no filler or novelty … like the barking dogs. The classics of
Christmas … and yes, KyXy's not afraid to call the season …
Christmas, so there! We know times are tough but remember Christmas
IS about giving … but not gifts … actually, love?"

Huh? Did someone at KyXy dip into the eggnog a bit early?

On a serious note: Parts of Iraq remain very dangerous. On
Sunday, NPR listeners got a reminder of the danger facing
journalists and ordinary Iraqis.

Correspondent Ivan Watson reported that he and three Iraqi
staffers came within seconds of being blown up on a Baghdad street
after someone placed a bomb under their armored BMW. Watson, along
with an Iraqi producer/translator and two Iraqi drivers, had
stopped at a kebab shop for an interview and a meal. The shop sits
in a neighborhood that had once been a "bustling commercial
boulevard" before the war. As the NPR team got ready to return to
the vehicle, "Iraqi soldiers ran up screaming 'bomb' in Arabic and
pointing at the parked BMW," Watson reported.

"They blocked oncoming traffic, and an Iraqi officer named Lt.
Mohammad Fawzi physically pulled one of NPR's drivers away from the
parked car. Seconds later, the BMW exploded and burst into flames
some 15 feet from the NPR journalists."

The bomb was apparently a "sticky bomb," a type that's attached
to the bottom of cars with the help of magnets. No one was injured.
According to NPR, an Iraqi army officer said an informant had
reported the bomb by phone just minutes before it went off.

Quickies:

The ax came down Monday at news station KOGO. Jimmy Valentine,
the longtime producer at Roger Hedgecock's talk show, was "formally
terminated," as he put it in an e-mail to listeners. "Folks at KOGO
are being real nice," Valentine wrote. "No 'get outta here right
now.' " No security guards to escort me to the door (although a top
suit did stick with me until I vacated the premises). I think they
kinda like me. Go figure." Valentine got the boot as the Hedgecock
show prepares to be nationally syndicated next year. … Rush
Limbaugh, of all people, is one of Barbara Walters' "10 Most
Fascinating People of 2008," according to a special airing this
week. (As TV host Stephen Colbert put it, this proves that Walters
is "easily fascinated.") Anyway, Limbaugh told Walters that he's
impressed by Barack Obama's "brilliant" choice of Hillary Clinton
as secretary of state. You read that right. Has the country's most
popular talk-show host lost it? After all, this is the same guy who
complained about the media engaging in "Obama-gasms" over one
"Barack Hussein Obama." Maybe Limbaugh has gotten into the eggnog,
too.